The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Master of Silence, by Irving Bacheller

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Title: The Master of Silence

Author: Irving Bacheller

Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7486]
Posting Date: July 27, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MASTER OF SILENCE ***

Produced by Jeffrey Kraus-yao

THE MASTER OF SILENCE

A ROMANCE

Fiction, Fact, and Fancy Series

Edited by Arthur Stedman

By Irving Bacheller

New York Charles L. Webster & Co. 1892

THE MASTER OF SILENCE

CHAPTER I

Near the end of my fourteenth year I was apprenticed to Valentine, King
& Co., cotton importers, Liverpool, as a "pair of legs." My father
had died suddenly, leaving me and his property in the possession of my
stepmother and my guardian. It was in deference to their urgent advice
that I left my home in London (with little reluctance, since my life
there had never been happy) to study the art of money-making. On
arriving at the scene of my expected triumphs I was assigned to the
somewhat humble position of errand boy. In common with other boys who
performed a like service for the firm I was known as "a pair of legs."
Lodgings of a rather modest character had been secured for me in the
western outskirts of the city near the banks of the Mersey. I was slow
to make friends, and my evenings were spent in the perusal of some story
books, which I had brought with me from London. One night, not long
after the beginning of my new life in Liverpool, I was lying in bed
listening to the wind and rain beating over the housetops and driving
against the windows, when suddenly there came a loud rap at my door.

"Who's there?" I demanded, starting out of bed.

As I heard no answer, I repeated my inquiry and stood a moment
listening. I could hear nothing, however, but the wind and rain.
Lighting a candle and dressing myself with all haste, I opened the
door. I could just discern the figure of a bent old man standing in
the hallway, when a gust of wind suddenly put out the candle. The door
leading to the street was open, and the old man was probably a straggler
come to importune me for shelter or for s